Tomato - How to Grow

How to Grow

Preparation of Soil

• Tomato is grown in many types of soils from sand o heavy clay. A well-drained, fairly light fertile loam with a fair moisture holding capacity is ideal for growing a good crop of tomato. Good texture of the soil is of primary importance. Even poor and medium quality land produces good early crop, if managed properly.
• Tomato crop prefers a soil reaction ranging from pH 6.0 to 7.0. In acidic soils, liming was beneficial.
• Tomato is planted in well pulverized and leveled field.
  

Sowing

• About 400 to 500 g seeds are normally needed for raising crop in one hectare. The seed quantity varies with season and region of cultivation.
• In North India for spring-summer crop, the seeds are sown in late November and transplanted in second fortnight of January. In area where frost does not occur, only one sowing is done in July-August with transplanting in August-September. For autumn crop in North India, seeds are sown in July-August and transplanted in August-September. In hilly areas, seeds are sown in March-April with transplanting in April-May.
• Seed treatment with hydrogen peroxide (0.2 to 0.6 percent) for 2 to 4 days at 21°C gave an early emergency of seedlings by 7 to 8 days and also yielded 22.8 percent higher yield.
• Tomato is normally planted in raised beds of 60 to 75 cm width.
  

Fertilizer application

• Apply FYM at 20-25t ha-1 and fertilizers 100N, 50 P2O5, 50 K2O kg ha-1
• Per ha 150 kg N, 25kg P2O5 and
  

Irrigation

• Frequency of irrigation depends on the nature of the soil.
• Light soils need frequent (weekly) irrigations than heavy soils (10-15days).
• Plants should not be subjected to stress during flowering.
• Double ring method of irrigation is ideal. Drip irrigation greatly economises the irrigation water.
  

Crop Management

• Pest – Shoot and fruit borers- Spray carbaryl 50 W.P @ 2.5g l-1 quinalphos @ 2.0ml l-1 or endosulfan @ 2.0 ml l-1 or monocrotophos @ 1.6ml l-1 or carbaryl @ 3.0g l-1. Repeat the spraying on need basis.
• Spray dimethoate @ 2.0ml or methyl-o-dememton @ 2.0ml monocrotophos @ 1.5ml or triazophos 1.5ml l-1 of water.
• Diseases- Damping off (Tomato) -Raise the nursery in raised seed beds. Treat the seed with thiram or captan @ 3g kg-1. Drench the bed with bordeaux mixture 5ml or coper oxychloride @ 3g l- Early blight (Tomato)
  
  Spray mancozeb @ 3g l-1 twice at 15 days interval.
  
  Little leaf of brinjal (MLO disease)
  
  Remove and destroy the infected plants.
  

Harvesting, Storage and Drying

• The harvesting of fruits can be done at an interval of 5 days during the morning hours to prevent the weight loss.
• Yield: 20 – 25 t/ha
• For long distance transport, the fruits are harvested at the mature green stage when the cream colour starts at the bottom. Tomatoes for local and near by markets are harvested at the breaker or ripe stage when the blossom end turns pinkish or reddish. At the fully ripe stage, the surface is pink or red and this is suited for canning purposes. The fruits are to be cleaned, sorted and graded. The fruits are then packed in wooden boxes or cartons.
  

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